


In Concert

by jonnorinterludes



Category: Jonnor - Fandom, The Fosters (TV 2013)
Genre: First Dates, Jonnor - Freeform, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 02:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4986478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonnorinterludes/pseuds/jonnorinterludes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First Date: Connor and Jude go to an all-ages concert on their first date as official boyfriends, but find that even the best laid plans don’t always turn out how they wanted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Concert

**Author's Note:**

> Occurs probably some time between 3x1 and 3x2. In the show S3, Jude and Connor start hanging out regularly as official boyfriends, so it can be deduced that they had a first date at some point, probably before the prom episode in 3x4. However this isn’t shown in the episodes. 
> 
> No, I haven’t been to San Diego so if you are from there, take it easy on me. I understand that certain plot devices, locations and events in this work are unlikely.
> 
> Most of my fics including this one are written third person subjective, but often with a bias to reveal events primarily as if from the perspective of Jude, similar to what we typically see in the show.

Jude glanced down at his watch again. 7:18 pm. He had fought the urge to keep checking the time, but a tinge of worry, blended with impatience, was starting to creep up on him. Connor wasn’t usually late, yet today he was almost twenty minutes late to what was supposed to be their first “official” date as boyfriends. It would also be the first time they were allowed to be alone together since Connor was discharged from the hospital. Jude closed his eyes for a second and fought back the worry, willing himself to return to the giddy, soaring feeling he had been feeling all day earlier. Mariana had given him grief earlier for spending so much time getting ready, buzzing around the house with a sort of hyper excitement normally reserved for new video game releases, camping trips, and well… truthfully, most times hanging out with Connor.

But this time felt different. For the first time, he was actually a bit nervous. By all accounts he shouldn’t be: they had been friends first, knew each other’s likes and dislikes, how to push each others’ buttons for better or worse. But even then, they had managed some epic fights. What if going from friends to boyfriends didn’t end up as such a good idea after all? What if they didn’t have the same natural ease and deep trusting bond with each other that they had as friends? Jude sighed as he tried to shake these doubts flittering around him. Besides being adopted by the Adams-Fosters, Jude couldn’t remember anything he’d wanted more than this boy Connor and this relationship.

In front of him, dogs with their owners, sweaty runners, surfers in wetsuits, moms with strollers, all streamed past steadily along the sea wall, absorbed in their own universes. Jude was just about to check his watch again when he saw Adam Stevens’ car pull into the lot. Connor, trying to move nimbly with his crutches but failing, struggled to jump out of the car. He had barely slammed the door before Adam sped off, with a steely scowl locked into his face and a curt half-nod of acknowledgement to Jude.

Connor hobbled over to his boyfriend, flustered, apologizing. “I’m so sorry. It took me extra time dealing with these,” Connor said, nodding once on each side to his crutches. “And, I kinda got in a big argument with my dad about us hanging out and where I was allowed to go, and how late I was allowed to stay out. Everything is just a big struggle with him.”

“It’s really okay, I basically just got here,” Jude lied whitely, shrugging slightly as if to physically shrug it off. Connor was normally the easier-going of the two of them, so this wasn’t a great sign. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I guess technically I was still supposed to be grounded from the night we broke into Taylor’s house. Dad probably just let me go out because he was getting sick of seeing me moping around the house day after day. Anyway, I’m sorry. I just hate to start our first date off on the… wrong foo-uhhm… nevermind.”

“Ahahah, just take a deep breath, okay?” Jude squeezed Connor’s arm reassuringly. “You’re here now, that’s what matters.”

They paused briefly, taking in the moment of their first date. It felt familiar, but also different and new, seeing a path and a future in front of them, together like never before. Connor, looking athletic even after days of bedrest, in an unbuttoned short-sleeve linen shirt over a thin yellow tank, with mid-thigh khaki shorts, black corded bracelets, a leather flip-flop, and of course, his foot cast. Jude, ever more casual, in a robin-blue graphic tee, cuffed slim jean shorts, and cream-colored Vans with no socks.

“I really like your outfit,” Jude said.

“Thanks. I’m trying hard to rock the latest in injury fashion and accessories. Your hair looks nice,” Connor said. As he said it, the breeze began to really pick up, tugging at Jude’s carefully combed hair in a messy-attractive kind of way.

They both gave a soft giggle at this new boyfriend lens that they were seeing each other through; it magnified everything they already loved about each other.  
“I guess we better head down. I hope we can still get a good spot. You ready?”

“Yeah,” Connor nodded. “Gimme one sec,” he said, struggling to get his crutches in place.

“You okay?” Jude rushed to help steady him.

“Thanks – I’m still getting used to these things.”

Jude couldn’t remember exactly whose idea it was to go to the concert on the beach. He thought he heard about it from Brandon and Mat, and must have mentioned something to Connor, who was itching for days to get a break from Adam. Once they found out it was an all-ages show, the plan for their first date hatched; painfully slowly, as they both did internet research while waiting for Connor to be released from the hospital, and after that, from under the heel of his dad’s puritanical discipline.

The last few times Connor slept over, back when Adam still allowed it, the two boys started listening to music on YouTube or Pandora, staying up later into the night. They would usually share earbuds, one bud each, while they played videogames or talked about their day, or their families, or their plans. Maybe the music was another sensation that subconsciously drew them closer together, offering them a shared and sometimes emotional sensory experience.

They didn’t always agree on music taste – Jude pressed skip more often over the rock, folk and country songs while Connor tended to press skip more over pop, funk and electronic. The indie concert festival was a good compromise though, with a mix of bands of different styles and flavors. Besides Someone’s Little Sister’s gig at the Adams-Foster house, this would be the first live concert for both of them.

"Did you check out those music videos I sent you?" Connor asked.

"Yeah, this is going to be an awesome concert.  Which band do you want to see the most?"

"Probably Twenty One Two..."

"Haha!  You just think the lead singer is cute," Jude teased.

"I do not," Connor protested.  "Well which band do you want to see most?"

"I don't know, probably Leroy Sanchez, or Three Night Stand."

"Well, we better hurry, I think they are one of the first to go on."

On the way down to the beachfront, colorful food trucks with delicious smells and various vendors hawking tacky mementos lined the walkways and parking lot. Both boys were starving, but they were also late, and if they didn’t get a good spot, it would be difficult to see any of the bands behind the taller adults in the crowd. By the time they neared the main plaza area, the wind had already picked up considerably, causing little eddies of sand to spontaneously dance and then collapse. Merchants were beginning covering some of their tables with sheets and blankets.

The crowd was getting thick and difficult to navigate. They could barely see the temporary stage frame setup towards the back in the distance over a sea of heads milling around in anticipation. Faint music drifted through the plaza – a disorganized mixture of a band warming up and tuning backstage, clashing with a local radio station over the main speakers. A temporary chain link fence ran all around the concert area, but the crowd was so disorganized that Jude couldn’t tell where the end of the line started, or even where the entrance really was.

“I guess we can just get in line anywhere here? How do we get inside?” Jude realized that he was talking to air. “Connor?” He looked around, puzzled. Connor was staring back at him, quite a few steps behind, frozen with an ashen, panicked look. Jude’s eyes widen a little bit. “Hey – what is it?”

“I – I don’t have the tickets.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I don’t have the tickets. They were in my wallet, and I was in a hurry from being late, and-and-I changed into different shorts at the last minute, and I didn’t grab my wallet. I don’t have it.”

Jude tried not to show any disappointment, but his heart had dropped. They had been talking about this and building it up for days. “Um. Okay. It’s okay. Let’s think for a second. Maybe we can find a ticket window and ask if they can print out new tickets?”

Connor scanned the area. “I dunno. I don’t see any place for tickets.”

“Can we call your dad and ask him to bring the tickets down?”

“I doubt it… he’s gonna be at poker night for the next couple of hours at least. I think he’s way on the other side of downtown, and the concert is about to start anyway.”

“Oh.” Jude felt a little helpless, like their evening was quickly unraveling at their feet.

“I’m really sorry. I totally screwed up.”

Connor let out a sigh as he hopped closer to Jude, trying to avoid the excited music lovers pushing past them toward the entrance. Both boys stood wordlessly for a while. Then Connor, trying to be as casual as possible, suggested “What if we sneak in?”

Jude’s first instinct was to shoot the idea down, and the ammunition kept popping into his head: There’s too many people around, that would be wrong, you’re in crutches. But he hated the fact that between the two of them, he was always the one to play by the rules; to go to class; tell the parents; to not kiss another boy during spin the bottle. After all, they had paid for a pair of tickets; Connor just forgot to bring them.

“Okay,” he blurted out instead, before he could change his mind.

“C’mon!” Connor was already making his way slowly along the fence, against the crowd.

“Connor –”

“Let’s try the back,” Connor insisted.

Skeptical, Jude followed along the fence, toward trailers and vehicles. They encountered fewer and fewer other people as they made their way further around, swimming upstream until the trickle of concert-goers evaporated completely. Jude could see the side exit in the distance, mostly abandoned but with a couple of crew members unloading one of the trucks parked out back, carrying speakers, wiring and other equipment inside.

“Let’s wait here,” Connor said as he ducked against a trailer, just out of earshot and sight line of the backstage staff.

“Connor…I don’t think we can be fast enough to get inside with…” Jude gestured to the crutches. “The last time we tried sneaking in somewhere it didn’t go well. Maybe we should just go.” There it was again, and he mentally kicked himself for chickening out. Follow the rules. Keep your head down. Do all your chores. Don’t wear the dress. Don’t kiss the boy.

Then, as they stood there trying to think of what to do next, the sound of footsteps coming up behind them.

“Well, look who we have here.”

Alarmed, Jude and Connor turned to confront their discoverers.

“Oh Shit,” Connor swore under his breath.

 


End file.
